Northern India Kashmir In
Kalhana's
Rajatarangini (12th century CE), the Saraswats are mentioned as one of the five
Pancha Gauda Brahmin communities residing to the north of the
Vindhyas. Based on the calendar used, they divided into two groups-Malmasi (who remained in the valley despite religious persecution) and Banmasi (who are said to have immigrated or re-immigrated under King Zain ul Abidin in the fifteenth century) The former follow the lunar calendar while latter who are in the majority follow the solar calendar. Walter Lawrence states that the Kashmiri Pandit community to be divided into the following classes - the Jotish (astrologer), the priestly class Guru or Bachabat and the Karkun (working class) that was employed in government service. Mohyal Brahmins stopped practising priestly duties. A small minority of Mohyals also have an association with
Shia Muslims because they helped
Imam Hussain in the
Battle of Karbala, these Mohyal Brahmnins are called
Hussaini Brahmins.
Eastern India In Gangetic belt mainly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Saraswat Brahmins were landlords and priests. They follow Shakta tradition, Vaishnavism and Shaivism.
Western and Southern India Here the Saraswat Brahmins are divided into three sub-groups, they are,
Gaud Saraswat Brahmins,
Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmins and
Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins. Vaishnavas among them are followers of
Kashi Math and
Gokarna Math, while the
Smarthas are followers of
Kavale Math and
Chitrapur Math.
Western India The majority of Saraswats speak
Konkani, one of the languages of the
Indo-Aryan language family. The major dialects of Konkani used by Saraswats are
Goan Konkani,
Maharashtrian Konkani and Canarese Konkani. with Saraswat Brahmin, commanding
Varuna to make the seas recede in order to create the Konkan Region Historian
Sanjay Subrahmanyam states that Saraswats at "
Basrur on the Kanara coast south of Goa" were a "caste of open status", which sometimes claimed to be Brahmins although they were associated with mercantile activity and called as "Chatins" from
Chetti by the Portuguese. Moroccan explorer
Ibn Battuta had also visited Basrur, which was considered "the great center of Saraswat trade", two centuries earlier than the Portuguese, but it did not interest him as much as it did the Portuguese.
Chatins de Barcelor was the term used for the Saraswat community of merchants at Basrur in the time of
Diogo do Couto, but the term
Chatin acquired a pejorative meaning later. It is likely derived from the Tamil 'Chati', which is a suffix for many trading castes that were present on the southern side of the Godavari river. The Saraswats and Gujarati Vanias in Goa, were involved not only in trade but also in tax related income. After the 1540s discrimination against non-Christians in Goa increased and there were mass conversions to Christianity. Despite this, between 1600 and 1670, about 80% of the
tax farms or
rendas were held by the Hindus, especially Saraswats. The prominent Saraswat merchants mentioned at this time, that is, early 1600s are Govinda, Pondya as well as the Kini and Nayaks. The
rendas were on various items such as spices(pepper), cotton and silk cloths, food shops and duties on gold. Michael Pearson has given an example of members and relatives of a Saraswat Naik family to show that when a person successfully did a bidding for a
renda from the government, he had to name some guarantors - who were usually his relatives or caste members. The Saraswats also traded at the
Vengurla and
Raybag ports and acted as suppliers of rice and pepper that they imported from
Kanara. In this context, they also dealt with the Dutch who has established a factory in the port of Vengurla. Scholars mention a certain P. Nayak who was a notable merchant in the 1670s. Saraswat merchant families during the Portuguese rule of Goa also were involved in trade with Portuguese colonies around the globe including in the African slave trade. In the 19th century also, French slave merchants came to Goa and contacted the Portuguese and Saraswat Brahmins who sold them African slaves. In
Konkan, the Saraswat as well as the fishermen communities were traditionally traders as well as
sailors. The reason for seafaring was that the land of Konkan suffered due to
salinisation and unpredictable rains. This caused the Saraswats to look for livelihood outside of Konkan and they would often use the
Arabian Sea for travelling for trade.
Dabhol was the main Konkan port in 1600 to
Hormutz and the traders traded with
Socotra and
Yemen but by 1700 Dabhol was ruined due to
silting and
sandbanks. Moreover, the cities with which the trading occurred had also declined. During Shivaji's coronation, the ritual status of the Saraswats to be Brahmins was supported by
Gaga Bhatt, a leading Brahmin from
Benares. Historically, in Maharashtra, Saraswats had served as low and medium level administrators under the
Deccan Sultanates for generations. In the 18th century, the quasi-independent
Shinde and the
Holkar rulers of
Malwa recruited Saraswats to fill their administrative positions. This made them wealthy holder of rights both in Maharashtra and Malwa during the eighteenth century. During the same period in Peshwa ruled areas, there was a continuation of filling of small number of administration post by the Saraswats. During the rule of the
Chitpavan Brahmin
Peshwas in the 18th century, Saraswat Brahmins was one of the communities against whom the Chitpavans conducted a social war which led to
Gramanya (inter-caste dispute). After the
liberation of Goa from the Portuguese colonial rule in 1961, many Goan Saraswats opposed merger of Goa into Maharashtra. The 19th century Konkani scholar
Shenoi Goembab, and the 20th century multi-faceted
Marathi scholar
Purushottam Laxman Deshpande are some of the prominent scholars from the Saraswat Brahmin community.
Southern India According to Nagendra Rao, the trading communities of Saraswats, Jews, Arabs,
Komatis,
Nawayath, etc. were active in south Kanara when the Portuguese arrived for trading in the 1500s. The items of trade were rice, pepper, ginger, etc. International trade already existed at the time in South Kanara and business existed with Malabar, Maldives, ports of the Red Sea. In Mangalore, Saraswats were part of the trading community when the Portuguese arrived to import
saltpetre. The items from Mangalore were exported to Malabar, Goa, Surat, Bengal, Malacca, Maldives, Mecca, Aden, Congo, Hormuz and Ceylon. Studies show that between 1500 and 1650, in Kanara, Saraswats and
Nawayath were dominant in commerce with ports outside India but it was
Mappila Muslims and Middle Eastern Muslims who dominated in Malabar. The rulers in India encouraged
Tobacco production from the mid-1600s because chewing, smoking and sniffing Tobacco gathered momentum in India. The Dutch extended cultivation in Kerala. Some towns in Kerala received support from the King of
Cochin for tobacco cultivation. Here, the Saraswat Brahmin merchants such as Nayak, Kamat, etc. took up tobacco farming in the latter half of the seventeenth century and this resulted in major income for the King of Cochin. According to some socialists due to the pescatarian diet of saraswats the claim of satkarmi brahminhood of saraswats was contested by local Brahmins but majority of saraswat Brahmins were Vegetarians, this was discussed during the coronation of shivaji where Gagabhatt gave verdict in favour of saraswat Brahmins, further during British era this matter reached court which resulted in court declaring saraswat Brahmins as Satkarmi Brahmins Sociologist and researcher Ramesh Bairy writes that "Saraswat claim to Brahminhood is still strongly under dispute, particularly in the coastal districts of Karnataka". According to the
sociologist, Gopa Sabharwal (2006), in
Belgaum, Karnataka, "marriages between Saraswat and non-Saraswat Brahmins are on the increase though they were unheard of before, mainly because the Saraswats eat
fish and occasionally
meat, while all other Brahmins are vegetarians". According to sociologist Ramesh Bairy, even in 2010, in Karnataka, "at the level of the community as a whole, Brahmins may not be incensed at the Saraswat claim to Brahminhood. But a non-Saraswat Brahmin will not be keen on proposing marriage with a Saraswat family". ==Marriages==